


falling again and again and...

by milktoast_mcgee



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Anxiety, Boys Kissing, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Non-Explicit, Panic Attacks, Pitioss Ruins (Final Fantasy XV), Sleepy Cuddles, maybe? sort of?, mostly the boys just comforting noct after running around in badtime ruins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milktoast_mcgee/pseuds/milktoast_mcgee
Summary: Noctis emerges from the strange ruins, but their unrelenting darkness follows him. He remembers falling over and over again, even when he falls into the arms of his companions. Wavering between unconsciousness and waking, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio fight to keep him grounded."Please," says a shaky voice, thrumming into his chest. Arms wrap tight around his waist. Hot lips press to his skin. "It's okay, Noct. You're okay."
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47





	falling again and again and...

He remembered falling.

So much of it blurred together. Cramped corridors that went nowhere. The grumbling of unknown mechanisms. Sliding planes of fire-hot spikes. The air, damp with blood painting the walls. The sloping floors, twisting around. Statues with hollow eyes watching him in the dark. Darkness looming around him. Still, moist, empty darkness, wrapped around him as he fell further and further into nothing.

The sunlight seared his senses. Sound rapped at his skull again, too loud in the face of so much deep, dark silence. He couldn't feel his body. He could barely hear muffled voices calling out to him. His body fell again and he waited for the cold stone floor to hit him before he would be mercilessly shoved back several paces to solid ground. But something grabbed him. Warmth encircled him. Something dug into his back and he dully recognized them as fingers. His legs wouldn't hold him upright. He waited to keep falling, and falling, and falling.

Noctis's eyes glazed over with tears in the face of blinding sunlight. Three familiar silhouettes surrounded him. They didn't come into focus. Their voices remained distant, but the arms around him were firm. So much warmer than anything in the dungeon, even the terrible spikes.

"Noct? Noct!"  
"Noct, h-hey, buddy, say something!"  
"Noct, please..."

Gentle hands. Strong hands at his back. Steady hands finding his face. Dirt and grime was caked on his face, his clothes. The thick, bloody smell followed him outside. It latched onto him, despite the careful hands trying to bring him back to the sunlight, to the real world, to the arms of his beloved friends.

He couldn't stop falling.

His body wouldn't move. His mind wouldn't emerge from the overwhelming darkness. Noct was vaguely aware of the unwavering arms around him, but they felt too far away. The gentle splash of water found his skin, but he couldn't feel it. His eyes opened and he could barely see the steam floating from the hot springs' surface, but he could only feel the damp, dark cold of the endless ruins. 

His consciousness threaded in and out, wobbling like the legs that refused to support him. Careful hands found his face. Fingertips wiped the grime and sweat from his forehead. Long, graceful fingers swept through his hair. When his eyes managed to open again, briefly, he immediately recognized Prompto's gaze. The daylight -- midday? afternoon? he couldn't tell after being in the dark for so long -- made his glitter like a pretty night sky. His eyes were blue, freckled with purple, warmed by the light. He looked so worried, reaching for Noct and tugging at his shirt, whispering encouraging words, maybe. Noctis couldn't tell.

He kept falling.

His eyes refused to focus, whenever they did open. The careful hands holding him peeled off his dirty, bloody clothes. His back found hard ground padded with a blanket while several more blankets were piled upon him. Sunlight filtered green through the thin walls of the familiar tent. Noct tried to keep his eyes open, but he couldn't tell up from down. One figure looming above him brought a gentle hand to his forehead again. Ignis's voice floated over him. He couldn't figure out what he was saying, but his words were quiet, soft as the hand on Noct's forehead.

"Noct." His voice ebbed like waves around him. Murmurs wavered beyond him, something that sounded like a badly-hushed Gladio and Prompto. Ignis's hand found his hair again, and each careful run of fingers through strands eased Noct's attention back to his voice. "Can you hear me?"  
He tried to answer, but dark and grime and falling, falling, falling choked him. The worry was clear in Ignis's voice, but a steady hand found Noct's face.  
"You went into the ruins last night."  
"It wouldn't let us follow you!" Prompto's voice was too loud in the small tent. "That weird elevator wouldn't move at all. We waited and waited, but, but you were..."  
"What happened in there?" Gladio's voice was rough, little more than a growl. Noct could barely feel, through the thick of blankets, a heavy hand resting on his leg. "Doesn't look like daemons to me."

Noct tried to breathe. He tried to grunt or groan or climb out from the nest of blankets, but he couldn't. The ground gave way underneath him. Their voices grew further and further away. He kept falling. The blankets rustled. He couldn't keep his eyes open. He last saw Prompto hovering over him, calling out to him, voice too loud and too quavering. Gladio seated near his feet, hands firmly planted along his legs, like his strong hands could keep him in place. Ignis's hands both found Noct's face. His voice was close, nearly voiceless, but still too far away in the clawing, awful dark.

"We're here for you."

He reached out to them. His hands were numb and useless and too heavy. He reached out to them like ledges just beyond his grasp, like floor giving way, like moving platforms giving up on him completely. 

But he kept falling, and falling, and falling. His friends' voices tried to follow.

"We're here, Noct."

\--

Again and again, the floor gave way beneath him. The old stone path crumbled under his feet. Whispers circled around him, murmurs and laughter alike, as he fell deeper and deeper into the dark. He threw out his arms but caught nothing. He screamed but the darkness swallowed his voice. Stone skulls and ghoulish statues watched him fall. The visage of some bound, radiant goddess beheld him with sad, hollow eyes. 

Metal clanged from further into the darkness. Unknown mechanisms screamed from even further. The world unraveled all around him and gave way to nothing but shadows. For a long, awful moment, he forgot his friends' faces, their voices -- all of it consumed by the deep dark of the ruins. He fell and fell until, finally, his back hit solid ground and he died once more, like many, many times in the strange, terrible dungeon.

But his eyes snapped open. His chest burned. He only realized he was screaming when he heard a voice clamor over his own.

"Noct? Noct! Noct, it's okay!"

Hands caught his shoulders. Noct felt cold ground underneath him, and felt Prompto gently pull him upright. He felt the weight of blankets piled on him, settling at his waist as he sat up. The same shaky hands remained at his shoulders, fingers pressed to his skin. Noct's breath caught. His chest burned. His eyes refused to focus. The tent remained dull and blurry around him. Too dark. Too cold. Warm hands gripped him tightly. His eyes adjusted just enough to see Prompto at his side. His eyes were wide, unmistakable even in the dark.

"Noct." He said his name softly. Letting out a slow breath, Noctis did the same. Prompto eased a little, but he refused to let go of Noct's shoulders. His voice remained quiet, but it echoed inside him like the cold, hollow ruins. "...you okay, buddy?"

No, it wasn't Prompto's hands that were shaking. Prompto was trying to hold him steady. The tent around them slowly, slowly came into view. It was dark -- too dark, too dark -- but he could barely see the outline of the floor, the tent opening drawn half-open, their collected things piled in the corner. He looked down at the blankets laid over him. His legs were numb, no, they weren't there at all. Despite the suggestion of them underneath the blankets, the rest of his body remained far away. Stuck somewhere in the unending dark. Still falling. His heart thudded in his chest. Breath refused to reach his lungs. Prompto's grip relented but only to move his hands down along his arms. His eyes nearly glittered in the dark as he leaned closer.

"Say something, man."  
"H-hahh," Noctis tried.   
Prompto chuckled uneasily. "I-I mean, that's almost something."

A gentle wind fluttered the fabric walls of the tent. Noct was cold. He was very aware of the warm hands, too heavy somehow, settled on his arms. Prompto grasped them a little harder, drawing Noct back from the edge of a crumbling stone path in the dark.

"Look at me, okay?"

Noct shivered. He was shirtless and he could feel little else but cold, dark, and bloody stone walls, and falling, and falling. He blinked and tried to focus on Prompto's concerned eyes. 

"I'm," he tried, lips failing to form words. "Wh-where...?"  
"The campsite," Prompto said with a nod. The low light -- supplied by the night and the faint runes glowing throughout the campground -- offered the depths of his eyes, the freckles of his face, the dim sheen of sweat on his brow and throughout his light hair. He nodded and tugged Noct again away from the ledge. "Not far from... where we found you. Like, a day and a half ago. You went into the ruins and collapsed when you..."

Prompto blinked. He fumbled over his words and ultimately shook his head when Noctis shivered again. It was too cold. Too dark. Too quiet. He could fall and keep falling at any moment.

"...Noct." Prompto's voice was no more than a whisper. "Are you okay?"

Dark and cold. Crumbling stone giving way underneath him. Noct opened his mouth but his breath was stolen away. His eyes opened wide, but Prompto wasn't there. He saw only darkness. His hands reached out to nothing. The echoes of statues' hollow eyes and unknown mechanisms burned his eyes. He was falling. He was falling again, lifeless wind whipping his hair and voices of aeons past, soundless, needling into him as he felt nothing all around him.

"Noct." His voice was too far away, too muffled -- he was falling and falling and -- "Noct!"

Something interrupted the fall. Arms jerked him forward and, despite the hollow, lifeless cold, wrapped tightly around him. Something warm settled on his shoulder. A warm body nestled against him. Slowly, as if the veil of impossible dark was slowly drawn away between them, he recognized Prompto's embrace. His soft hair brushed the side of his face, head bowed to his shoulder. He was shaking, shivering from something other than terrible cold. Noctis struggled to breathe, but again, Prompto's voice drew him back to the tent, back into his arms.

"Just... take it easy," the blond tried, lips barely moving against Noct's bare skin. "Stay here. Stay with me, alright?"  
"Prompto." His throat was dry, choked, but he managed to say his name. He found his own arms and, somehow, his hands found Prompto's back. He was warm. His thin shirt. His body, trembling. His hands pressed to Noct's back, seeping his bright, gentle warmth into his skin. "You're here...?"  
"Wh--well, yeah."

Prompto sniffled. He moved back to try and meet the prince's eyes. His lips fumbled over some words before he managed to speak, clearing his throat.

"Ignis and Gladio didn't go too far." He slowly, consciously repositioned his hands along Noct's back. His eyes ventured away, following the direction they'd gone. "They went to check out those ruins. Gladio said he was getting sick of just sitting here waiting for you to wake up, of all of us waiting for..."

Prompto drew back a little more. His arms slipped around Noct's sides, but the prince jerked forward, clawing at the blond's back to keep him close. A desperate noise tore from his choked throat. Prompto stiffened in his embrace, but his own arms found their way around Noct again. His bare shoulders trembled, chest heaving against Prompto's.

"Noct," Prompto breathed. The prince buried his face to Prompto's neck, causing him to shudder. When Noctis spoke, he pressed his lips to the nape of his neck and the pleasant, gentle warmth of his skin.  
"I-it's cold," Noct muttered. Despite the plain concern in Prompto's voice and the quavering hands at his back, the blond chuckled quietly.  
"It get so hot during the day out here, but it's actually cooled off a lot. Hey, I'll grab you some--"  
"You're warm."

Prompto let out a slow, careful breath. His hands tentatively pressed into Noct's back as the prince pushed harder against his neck. His mouth drew open against his skin. Prompto radiated a sweet, pleasant warmth, everything unlike the depths of the ruins. His skin tasted of salt and sunshine and sweat. Despite the blond's shiver, something of a whimper, fingers digging into Noct's bare back, Noctis hugged him tighter. Prompto's laugh was breathless, voiceless.

"S-sorry, I'm all sweaty..."

Noct answered him with a trail of kisses along his neck. His lips found his ear, causing the blond to tremble even more. He was warm. The echoes of such a horrible place couldn't find him in Prompto's arms, wrapped in the warmth of his body. His lips moved along the line of his jaw, soon capturing Prompto's own lips. The blonde leaned back, pulling the prince with him. He moaned into Noct's open mouth. Their tongues slid together -- wet and wonderfully hot -- as Noct's hands moved down along his sides. 

When his thumbs dug into Prompto's hips, the blond yelped and broke away with wide eyes. Meeting Noctis's needy gaze, he quickly looked away, tugging uselessly at the collar of his shirt.

"If you're cold, dude, I could get you a shirt, y'know. Or, if you want to... keep, uhh."

The tent opened. Prompto's arms tightened around Noct while the prince felt a pleasant rush of desert night wind. It was cold, but it only magnified Prompto's warmth around him. Two silhouettes, one broad, one lithe, appeared from outside. They brought with them a lantern, soon illuminating both Gladio and Ignis. Quickly closing the tent behind them, the lantern light easily filled the small space. It made Noctis sigh and ease into Prompto's arms a little more.

"Noct." Ignis's voice was sharp. Immediately, he moved to Noct's other side. He tugged off a glove, notably dirty, and placed his hand to the prince's forehead. Noctis couldn't help but lean into his touch as well, and he nearly whined when he pulled away. The concern on his face remained, but his voice softened. "How are you feeling?"

Noct's eyes fell closed. His head settled to Prompto's shoulder, causing the other young man to wriggle a bit where he sat.

"Cold," he murmured, his lips numb from the loss of Prompto's kiss. When he managed to open his eyes again, he stared directly at the lantern. "...dark."  
"Checked out those ruins," Gladio grunted. Noct dimly noted the two showed signs of their exploration -- dirt and dust and gravel. Gladio sat at the end of Noctis's pile of blankets and shook some stony dust from his hair. "Weirdass place. Kinda like that old tower but... not."  
"They're Solheim ruins, surely," Ignis added with a slow nod. "Strange architecture. Red runes, alight at sunset. Unresponsive mechanisms. Although it seems you were able to enter..."

The low light revealed his leer, his careful eyes. He watched Noct with caution, choosing his words slowly. A shiver rippled down Noctis's spine once again, and again. The lantern light disappeared before his eyes. He choked. Walls dripping wet with blood, foul, filling his nose. Crumbling stone. Statues with hollow eyes, watching his every bumbling move. Churning machines and crumbling stone. Cold, too cold. He hugged Prompto tightly. While the blond embraced him, too, nestling his head beside his, the prince could barely feel him. He was too far away. Far outside. A whole world away while Noct teetered on the ledge of--

"If you can, Noct, please," Ignis's voice was sharp again, laced with something almost desperate. "Tell us what happened."  
"It was..."

Dark. Cold. So dark and so cold.

"I was..."

Falling. He just kept falling.

"I--..."

Falling and falling and falling.

"Ahh--hhh..."

Noct jerked backward. He tumbled from one ledge of the hundreds before. He fell from the old, worn stone and into the unrelenting, unwelcoming darkness. Though he tried to scream, the shadows choked him. Unknown magics breathed dead all around him. He fell. And fell. He didn't bother to flail, or reach out for anything. Nothing offered him a hand, an arm of rusted metal, another path of stone. Before, the first tens of times he fell, he fought the darkness around him. He searched for any sign of ground below, anything to break the neverending fall. But, before he was mercilessly thrown back to somewhere else, solid ground, hitting it with the force of the years thousands in the ruins' walls bearing down on him. 

He slammed to the floor and fell through it once again. His body curled into himself. His arms wrapped around his legs and hands dug into his thighs to feel something. Anything at all. He closed his eyes, but the darkness followed him even behind his eyelids. He kept falling and falling and falling, old eyes and dead gods watching him all the while, so dark and so cold and choking him and--

Something caught him. It hit him with force like the ruins' floors, but it wasn't cold. At first, it was blisteringly hot, searing his senses as it threw him back into place. Air slammed back into his lungs. He heard himself scream while voices called out to him from the dark -- no, far beyond him, trying desperately to reel him back with trembling hands.

Two smooth, gentle hands found his face. Two more strong, firm hands grasped his shoulders and pinned him to the cool, solid floor beneath, anything but the dusty stone. Something half heavy settled to his chest and wrapped tightly around his waist. He couldn't tell what the voices were saying, but they hauled him from the dark slowly, gently, but with unwavering strength.

"Noct." The closest voice, low and careful, a whisper so strong but so soft and so full of warmth. "We're here."  
"Get it together." A husky, rough voice to join the hands digging into his shoulders, heavy, seeping warm lantern light (courtesy of Coleman's camping gear) into his bare skin. "We've got you, Noct."  
"Please," said a shaky voice, thrumming into his chest. Arms wrapped tight around his waist. Hot lips against his skin. "It's okay, Noct. You're okay."

His eyes snapped open. His body was unfolded thanks to the efforts of three others. Soft light filled the tent. Despite the hands on him, and Prompto half sprawled atop him, he could breathe again. His senses spun, but the hands caressing his face made them slowly come to a stop. Ignis's face hovered above him. He drew a thumb along Noctis's cheek, tears too hot, painfully hot upon his skin.

"...good," Ignis said with a sigh. He drew a hand along Noct's forehead, drawing aside sweat-laden strands. For a long moment, Noct's eyes fell closed. But Ignis leaned in, drawing his forehead to his, their noses barely touching. "Breathe, Noct."

At his command, his chest replied. His lungs burned and his heart pounded too hard against his ribs, but Prompto's head nestled against him made it grow quiet. Ignis, voiceless, noted each breath in and out, in and out again. Gladio's hands loosened at his shoulders, but his thumbs drew circles in his skin.

"Damn it," Gladio grunted. Heavy palms moved to his chest, resting to either side of Prompto's head. "Just... just take it easy, alright?"  
"We're here," whispered Prompto. A kiss at the dip of his collarbone sent a warm, pleasant twinge through his body. When Noct's arms moved, finally, dumbly finding Prompto above him, the blond's kisses traveled, pressing harder, open mouthed, to waiting skin. "We're not going anywhere, so you won't either."

One of Noct's hands gripped Prompto's back. His fingers marveled at the sharp lines of his shoulderblades. The other hand found Ignis bent at his side. He gripped the back of his neck and closed the small distance between their lips. Ignis jerked. His glasses attempted to slide from his face, and he quickly adjusted them before returning his hands to cradle Noct's face. Long fingers slipped into his hair as Ignis moved yet closer. His lips made him even warmer, the light even brighter, accompanied by Prompto's at his chest. The darkness evaporated from his skin. A strong hand wrapped around his own at Prompto's back. Gentle lips, definitely Gladio's, found his fingers, cradled in his own.

"We can warm you up a little, if you want."  
Noct broke away from Ignis's lips, only to beg breathlessly for more. "...please."  
"If you're gonna ask so nicely..."

Another hand found his hair. Ignis moved away enough to allow Gladio to draw close, kneeling at Noct's other side. At first, his kiss was soft, coupled with a heavy breath against Noct's lips. Noctis tried to reach for him, but Gladio kept a firm grasp on his hand. He moved in, drawing Noct's mouth open, tasting his tongue and his voiceless moan. The Shield grunted as, suddenly, he jerked back. Prompto crawled up from Noct's waist and seized the prince's mouth, kissing him deeply. 

At his side, Ignis chuckled. He smoothed the squirming prince's hair trailed kisses from his forehead, along the side of his face, down the line of his neck. Gladio chose to follow suit, planting one kiss after another along the prince's neck, moving up to the shell of his ear.

The darkness attempted to crawl back to him. Churning mechanisms and cold stone. The dust tried to choke him again, the shadows strangling him. Noctis nearly whimpered against Prompto's lips. Finally, he found his voice and found their forms around him. Over him. With him.

"Stay here."

One hand remained in Gladio's grasp while the other threaded through Ignis's light hair. The warm lantern light and the warmth of their bodies, their hands, their lips, made his eyes flutter closed once again. He leaned into Ignis's kiss on his cheek. Prompto captured his lips again. Gladio slid a hand to the prince's hair and broke him away from Prompto -- causing the blond to whine just a little -- and kissed him once more.

"We're here for you, Noct," Ignis said, lips brushing against his cheek.

They shifted carefully, moving together to not disturb their prince. Prompto shifted to allow Ignis to move the covers over Noct. One of Ignis's hands brushed along Noct's bare thigh. Despite a whole-body shiver, warmth spread through Noct's body. Prompto removed his shirt. His skin was hot against Noctis's own. With a rustling, Ignis nestled to his side. He draped a bare arm over both Noct and Prompto, resting his head to Noct's shoulder. He sighed into Noct's neck while Gladio settled to the prince's other side. He tucked his arm under Noct's neck. His other hand gently stroked along his side, fingers catching pleasantly upon his hip.

"A-ahh..."

Another shudder wracked through him, but the cold was gone. Bare skin and even breath surrounded him. At some point, the lantern had been clicked off, and darkness settled over them together. Starlight glittered behind his eyes. Lips again and again found his own, found his neck and chest and waist and thighs and everywhere else. Their bodies moved with each other, in unison, catching him firmly in a wonderful tangle of arms and legs.

The ruins remained far off, somewhere in the night, languishing in the dead unknown dark, but it didn't matter anymore. They were with him, and he was with them. They were together. They would wake in the desert morning uncomfortably hot and sticky, glued together, sweating skin to skin with no trace of darkness in sight.

He couldn't remember falling at all.

**Author's Note:**

> so hahahahahahhafjdkgnjfsdk pitioss ruins was kinda fun, actually. but I couldn't help but feel terrible for noct falling over and over and over into nothing. so many times I had to yell BABY I'M SO SORRY! even when he's returned to a checkpoint, alive and well(?), I don't want this boy to suffer any more than he already has. so, here's some sweet comfy boy cuddles because I am sad and sentimental and very, very sappy. thank you for reading, my dudes!
> 
> this fic has been brought to you by colemans brand camping gear.


End file.
